I have a shapefile of the U.S. states, and tabular data that I joined to it based on the state name. The data was downloaded in .csv format, but it didn't carry over some number categories when I joined. So I converted it to a .xlsx, appropriate formatted each column and re-did the join. After that, all of the columns name and information was available.
Now, I have to export the combined data as a new feature class. When I do that, the column names change to have additional text (states_STA, states_SUB, states_S_2, etc.), or to shorten themselves, and therefore removing the identifiable information.
What can I change in my work flow so that the original column names will remain the same?